In the final phase of World War II, in February 1945, the Allies bombed Dresden: Approximately 25,000 people lost their lives, and the survivors were deeply traumatized; the once magnificent Elbe Florence lay in ruins. In "The Night the Fire Came," British journalist and author Sinclair McKay embarks on a unique quest for traces. In the city's archives, he discovered deeply hidden personal records that allow him to recount the events of those three fateful days and nights from the perspective of the city's residents: students, members of the Hitler Youth and the Kreuzchor, artists, musicians, as well as the prisoner of war Kurt Vonnegut and, not least, Victor Klemperer, along with pilots and crew members of the British and American forces. Never before has the extent of this air raid on the civilian population of the city been depicted so multifaceted, emotionally, and profoundly human as in this masterpiece of narrative historiography – and it will remain in memory long after the last page is turned.